


Mourn With You

by Helmight, Kenocka



Category: League of Legends, Magic: The Gathering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 19:11:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3458591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helmight/pseuds/Helmight, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kenocka/pseuds/Kenocka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How curious it was that he’d traveled across worlds to find another leonin who was grieving a loss. The coincidence was almost too much to believe. <i>'Fate has a strange way of bringing comfort.'</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Mourn With You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Helmight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helmight/gifts).



"You walked the worlds to deliver the woman’s  _armor_  back to her?” The phrasing and tone of the question made it into a flatly voiced statement accompanied by Rengar’s right eyebrow soaring skyward. 

Ajani was put on guard by the sarcasm and his response was measured and cautious; just what was this lone leonin getting at? ”Yes,” he said warily.

Rengar snorted and turned to look at something off in the distance before looking back at the Planeswalker. “I’m blind in one eye but you’re blind in all your senses.”

He snorted, both at the irony of Rengar’s remark and at himself. “Perhaps I am,” came the quiet reply. “Elspeth was… she had a spark about her that made you want to follow her to the ends of the universe. She had a warrior’s heart and the soul of an angel. I would not let her stay in self-imposed exile.” 

Ajani turned back to his companion, staring at him over the crackling fire with his one good eye. “Haven’t you ever had someone like that in your life?”

Rengar’s ears flicked and he allowed his face to fall into one of deep thought, as if the question needed true pondering. “No,” he finally answered in a lie as his eyes fell on the shadowed greenery around them and the all too powerful memory of a naturally earthy and oaky musk forever separated from him. “The people here are mostly unbearable in their stupidity.”

Ajani chortled. “I find that hard to believe. In my experience, worlds are full of fascinating individuals. You just have to dig deep enough to find them.” Rengar had certainly not been telling the truth, but Ajani refrained from asking about it. For him, perhaps the grief was all too near.  _'As if you aren’t still grieving yourself,'_  he reflected grimly. 

"If you can get past the subtle racism or even the outright hostility and prejudging nature of the people that are the majority population then you might be right." This time the hunter refrained from snorting and just let his bitterness seep into his words. A small sound of shifting blankets turned Rengar’s attention away from the conversation for a moment as Gnar turned over in his sleep, the anger in his words causing the child to stir slightly. He began purring, a deep and loud rumble, in the hopes that it would sooth the boy back to sleep and waited until Gnar had stilled to stop.

"Why are you not with her then? If she is as capable of walking worlds then why aren’t you both sightseeing together?"

Ajani’s throat constricted at the words. He saw the spear again, heard the cruel god’s words as he thrust it into Elspeth’s body and struck her down where she stood. Anger and sadness both welled up within him, raging at the cruelty of her death and the loss of the closest friend he had in the Multiverse. His knuckles began to ache and it was only then that Ajani realized that he had been clenching his fists. 

"She is dead," he said simply, the words ringing hollow to his ears. "Hers is the cloak I wear now."

It was overtly obvious that the mage was still in mourning with how tightly balled up his fists were. Rengar imagined that he could hear the bones in Ajani’s fists creaking under the pressure and wisely kept quiet. He understood allowing someone time to recover from a loss although the hunter himself was not quite so lucky. Gnar was far too young to understand and feel anything other than abandoned and in his still-broken grasp on the common tongue, continued to ask questions that Rengar did not have the answers to. Even the Pridestalker felt tossed aside by the turn of events. Neither of them understood why they had been left behind. 

For weeks he had been looking at a photograph and holding a shirt that strongly smelled of his mate. There were still so many things in the den that were painful reminders of what had been, clothing mostly but there were several photographs as well as his workroom and the materials and tools left there. The photos had all had been put away when Gnar couldn’t stop crying just by looking at them and even Rengar felt that having them visible was too painful for either of them. He still wasn’t entirely past that point and did not think that he would be in the near future. 

So Rengar had suffered a death as well. His strange behavior from before suddenly wasn’t so odd. Ajani would have offered condolences, but as the other hadn’t explicitly told him about it, Ajani kept his mouth shut. The fire crackled on, filling the silence between the two of them.

How curious it was that he’d traveled across worlds to find another leonin who was grieving a loss. The coincidence was almost too much to believe.  _'Fate has a strange way of bringing comfort,'_ he reflected. 

"I appreciate the hospitality, but I will not intrude on you further," Ajani finally said, standing up to go. "I can find another place to lay my head tonight."

"You may– can stay." Rengar corrected himself hastily, making an effort to sound less arrogant than he tended to come off as. "It makes no sense to move off when it’s already dark and there are beasts here that might be able to catch you unawares," he reasoned. The hunter motioned to Gnar and added, "I have enjoyed speaking with another adult as well."

"I mourn with you," Rengar mumbled, overcome by his thoughts and unable to say anything other than an expression he had grown up hearing. It was meant to indicate understanding and compassion but it felt odd, heavy and cumbersome coming from him. He’d never had need to use the words before now but privately realized that in this case and in many others, the words held a duality because of the situation at hand. Both of them were in mourning even if Rengar would not admit it to Ajani aloud.

Ajani nodded his head. “I am grateful for the offer,” he said. Rengar had raised a good point - he didn’t yet know the land - and company would be appreciated. 

He gave a smile at the sleeping child. Though Rengar had told him that Gnar wasn’t his, the leonin’s love for the boy made Ajani think otherwise. “I should think that to be true,” Ajani said with a smile. 

Ordinarily Ajani would have climbed a tree and bedded up there to escape from the footfalls of the behemoths, but this wasn’t Naya. He gestured at the trunks nonetheless, with an expectant look at Rengar. “Shall we?”

"It’s been a few years since I slept in a tree without netting beneath me," admitted Rengar, standing carefully to avoid waking Gnar and looking up into the canopy. They would have to climb a long way up before they could finally reach any of the branches up there. He didn’t  _like_  sleeping in trees but could admit that doing so was slightly safer than sleeping on the ground but he was less worried about himself. If he moved wrong and was sent plummeting towards the ground in the middle of his sleep he could wake up and dig his claws into the bark to stop himself from falling, Gnar couldn’t. Rengar knew he’d have the boy sleeping in his arms the whole night or else paranoia would get the better of him. 

Rengar knelt and gently woke Gnar, who did not take his sleep being interrupted kindly. It took a few moments of convincing but he finally was allowed to make a harness out of the boy’s blankets so that he wouldn’t have to worry about a sudden loss of grip.

"Lead the way."

**Author's Note:**

> This story is brought to you by the following lines burning themselves into my brain and Akai dragging me kicking and screaming into his lush, lore-filled world by dangling the lovely Ajani in front of me and a rich sandbox to play in. Magic's lore soothes my savage needs as a role player and a writer. 
> 
> "You walked the worlds to deliver the woman’s armor back to her?”
> 
> "Yes," he said warily.
> 
> "I’m blind in one eye but you’re blind in all your senses."
> 
> Akai was kind enough to RP as Ajani for me but he believes he doesn't do the character justice. I let him know that if I feel the itch for Rengar and Ajani to speak to one another, he is going to be the one to scratch it so there may be more of these two coming but that remains to be seen.


End file.
